Norwell welcomes new town planner Ken Kirkland

Thursday

Oct 12, 2017 at 6:04 PMOct 12, 2017 at 6:04 PM

Adam Silva adsilva@wickedlocal.com @AdamSMariner

While town planner Ken Kirkland has only been in the position less than three months, he views his previous work in government work as time sitting in the passenger seat. He's now in the driver’s seat and only now just put the car in drive.

Prior to working in Norwell, Kirkland worked with the city of Cranston, R.I. as an intern in the planning department for four years, doing everything short of “being an actual staff member.” Staff memos, capital budget planning, zoning ordinances and working on the city’s 2020 comprehensive plan were some of the duties he cut his teeth on.

“In the last two years I was in the planning department, I also worked in the building department as a building department as a part-time permit tech,” he said. “Not only did I get to see a broad range of projects from planning in terms of urban projects, suburban projects, rural projects and commercial projects, but I got to see those projects go from the planning stages all the way to when they came in for building permits.”

Kirkland said that while he understands most people might think being excited about a government job is silly, he is a strong believer in the idea that if you do what you love, you never work a day in your life.

Building relationships with local developers, lawyers, builders and residents has been the most rewarding part of the job so far, he said.

“I still get people that reach out to me to congratulate me and say, ‘Oh, we have a new town planner. Finally!’,” Kirkland said. “Just recently, I was able to talk to our police chief [Ted Ross], since I make it a point to reach out to everyone on a daily basis and especially when I first got here. The police chief was the last remaining person that I hadn’t sat down and had a conversation with.”

Getting the lay of the land is still his highest day-to-day priority. On the horizon, though, he sees long-term plans involving middle-class housing. In his short time in the town, he said he sees why people make this their home and why keeping people here needs to be a priority.

“People moving to Norwell, they come here because of the great school system and it’s a great place to live,” he said. “It’s a rural community setting and people want to raise their kids here. Kids go on to college and move out and the parents find out that they can’t stay where they are. So we are trying to address it so the people who have spent their entire lives here are able to stay here and continue to call Norwell their home.”

He anticipates that while the town’s population will not change drastically, the ages of those residents will be increasing to retirement age.